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This page - mostly inactive recently because of lack of time - collects scientific and medical items about menstruation and women's health as they have appeared in the News sections. See also a bibliography of menstruation, which includes technical titles.

Check these sites for more information about the health problems of menstrual products and health information for women: Feminist Women's Health Center, Yakima, Washington (USA), Menopause-online, Red Spot, S.P.O.T., Women's Health: The Mining Company, and the Women's Health Information Center of the American Medical Association. See other links about product companies, information for newly menstruating girls, etc.


See the history-making article about menstrual synchrony by Martha McClintock (1971)

"Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome," by Lynn Dunning (see also another article on POS by Dr. Nelson Soucasaux) (April 2003)

You are possibly more susceptible to heart attacks in the low-estrogen time of the menstrual cycle (December 2000)

"Everything fits together" the American weekly Science News (December 2, 2000 edition, p. 366) quoted Norman Chan of University College London as saying, to suggest that "the menstrual cycle helps trigger heart attacks among women with other risk factors." He added that low estrogen concentrations in the blood create stiff vessels, based on his own unpublished data.

That was a comment about a study presented at a recent meeting of the American Heart Association, in New Orleans, which reported that in a small group of women having heart attacks at a young age (35 - 47 years old), the attack happened within five days of the start of their periods. The women had other risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure. Estrogen is low at this time.

Bettina Hamelin, of Laval University, Quebec, did the study, which I read about in the above edition of Science News. SN also said Hamelin warned that women with these risk factors should pay attention to back pain, which may be heart related rather than menstrual pain symptoms.

Anna Simpson, an English molecular biologist, again kindly sent journal abstracts about menstruation topics (September 2000). Go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query to look up the abstracts

The cost of the menstrual cycle in young Swedish women. Non-pill users in Sweden spend on average US$1/month more on sanitary supplies than pill users.

Eur J Contracept Reprod Health Care 2000 Jun;5(2):152-6

Kristjansdottir J, Johansson ED, Ruusuvaara L

Analysis of menstrual diary data across the reproductive life span applicability of the bipartite model approach and the importance of within-woman variance. Sounds interesting, but mathematical! [Ms. Simpson's comment.]

J Clin Epidemiol 2000 Jul;53(7):722-33

Harlow SD, Lin X, Ho MJ

The female athlete. A review of potential problems for female athletes.

Baillieres Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab 2000 Mar;14(1):37-53

Warren MP, Shantha S

Premenstrual symptoms are relieved by massage therapy. And here's one every woman with a partner should print out and pin up! [Ms. Simpson's comment. Mine: Aw riiiight!]

J Psychosom Obstet Gynaecol 2000 Mar;21(1):9-15

Hernandez-Reif M, Martinez A, Field T, Quintero O, Hart S, Burman I


Anna Simpson, an English molecular biologist, kindly introduced and sent the following four journal abstracts about menstruation topics:

1. Disturbed sleep and dysmenorrhea
2. Menstrual disorders and smoking
3. The timing of breast-cancer surgery
4. Women in the U.K., France and U.S.A. have similar premenstrual symptoms and are reluctant to seek treatment

1. Women who suffer from dysmenorrhea suffer from disturbed sleep pattern during their whole menstrual cycle, not just during menstruation:

Am J Physiol 1999 Dec; 277(6 Pt 1):E1013-21

High nocturnal body temperatures and disturbed sleep in women with primary dysmenorrhea.

Baker FC, Driver HS, Rogers GG, Paiker J, Mitchell D

Brain Function Research Unit, Department of Physiology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa.

Primary dysmenorrhea is characterized by painful uterine cramps, near and during menstruation, that have an impact on personal life and productivity. The effect on sleep of this recurring pain has not been established. We compared sleep, nocturnal body temperatures, and hormone profiles during the menstrual cycle of 10 young women who suffered from primary dysmenorrhea, without any menstrual-associated mood disturbances, and 8 women who had normal menstrual cycles.

Dysmenorrheic pain significantly decreased subjective sleep quality, sleep efficiency, and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep but not slow-wave sleep (SWS), compared with pain-free phases of the menstrual cycle and compared with the controls. Even before menstruation, in the absence of pain, the women with dysmenorrhea had different sleep patterns, nocturnal body temperatures, and hormone levels compared with the controls. In the mid-follicular, mid-luteal, and menstrual phases, the dysmenorrheics had elevated morning estrogen concentrations, higher mean in-bed temperatures, and less REM sleep compared with the controls, as well as higher luteal phase prolactin levels. Both groups of women had less REM sleep when their body temperatures were high during the luteal and menstrual phases, implying that REM sleep is sensitive to elevated body temperatures. We have shown that dysmenorrhea is not only a disorder of menstruation but is manifest throughout the menstrual cycle. Furthermore, dysmenorrheic pain disturbs sleep, which may exacerbate the effect of the pain on daytime functioning.

2. A study of nearly three thousand women in the U.S. Navy shows that smoking is associated with an increases in all menstrual disorders, including cramps and heavy or irregular periods. Obesity, alcohol intake and (contrary to what my mother told me!) exercise were not correlated with menstrual problems:

J Womens Health Gend Based Med 1999 Nov;8(9):1185-93

The association of behavior and lifestyle factors with menstrual symptoms.

Kritz-Silverstein D, Wingard DL, Garland FC

Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, USA.

The present study examines the association of obesity, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and exercise with the prevalence of menstrual cycle disorders among 2912 women aboard U.S. Navy ships.

Self-administered surveys obtained information on weight, height, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and exercise. Participants also indicated whether they experienced cramps or pain during their period requiring medication or time off work, bleeding between periods, excessive frequency of periods, heavy periods, periods lasting for longer than a week, scanty menstrual flow, and irregular periods during the past 90 days. Women ranged in age from 18 to 49 years, with an average of 26 years. After adjustment for age, race, and pay grade, current cigarette smoking was associated with increased risk of all menstrual symptoms and cycle disorders. As compared with nonsmokers, current smokers were at increased risk of cramps or pain requiring medication or time off work (odds ratio [OR] = 1.13, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03, 1.25), bleeding between periods (OR = 1.22, CI = 1.09, 1.38), excessive frequency of periods (OR = 1.33, CI = 1.17, 1.51), heavy periods (OR = 1.17, CI = 1.06, 1.29), periods lasting longer than a week (OR = 1.31, CI = 1.16, 1.48), scanty flow (OR = 1.13, CI = 1.01, 1.29), and irregular periods (OR = 1.14, CI = 1.05, 1.24). Obesity, exercise, and alcohol consumption did not show consistent associations with menstrual symptoms or cycle disorders.

Logistic regression models that included age, race, pay grade, and all behavioral and lifestyle variables indicated only cigarette smoking was associated with an increased risk of bleeding between periods (OR = 1.33, CI = 1.05, 1.68), excessive frequency of periods (OR = 1.38, CI = 1.21, 1.58), periods lasting longer than a week (OR = 1.45, CI = 1.13, 1.84), and irregular periods (OR = 1.25, CI = 1.05, 1.47).

Although the lifestyle factors are all potentially modifiable, results suggest that only interventions targeted at smoking cessation might be useful in reducing the prevalence of menstrual symptoms, cycle disorders, and time lost from work.

3. The timing of breast cancer surgery relative to the menstrual cycle could have a significant effect on the success or failure of the surgery. This may be due to the effect of hormones of the breast tissue.

Cancer 1999 Nov 15;86(10):2053-8

Survival of premenopausal breast carcinoma patients in relation to menstrual cycle timing of surgery and estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor status of the primary tumor.

Cooper LS, Gillett CE, Patel NK, Barnes DM, Fentiman IS

Hedley Atkins Breast Unit, Guy's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.

BACKGROUND: Premenopausal breast carcinoma patients who undergo tumor excision during the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle may have a significantly worse prognosis than those whose tumors are excised in other phases of the menstrual cycle.

METHODS: Outcome was determined in a series of 112 premenopausal women with operable breast carcinoma in relation to the timing of surgery within the menstrual cycle and the estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status of their primary tumors as determined by immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS: Those patients with ER positive tumors who underwent surgery in the early and luteal phase of the cycle had a significantly better survival than women with ER negative tumors (chi-square test = 15.56; P < 0.001). This also was true for PR status (chi-square test = 18.21; P < 0.001). After follicular phase surgery, tumor receptor status had no effect on overall survival. Patients with the best prognosis had ER/PR positive tumors excised on Days 0-2 and 13-32 but even those women with ER or PR negative tumors removed during the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle fared better than patients whose tumors were removed during the follicular phase.

CONCLUSIONS: There was a better survival rate for patients with both ER/PR positive and negative tumors treated during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. This could be the result of progesterone acting on the surrounding peritumoral normal tissue, thereby exerting a straitjacket effect and improving cohesion of the primary carcinoma. Unopposed estrogen in the follicular phase of the cycle may enable more tumor emboli to escape and successfully establish micrometastases.

Copyright 1999 American Cancer Society.

4. And finally, a paper presenting results that women in France, the U.K. and the U.S. share similar pre-menstrual symptoms. The majority of them also share a reluctance to seek treatment. I suppose we've all been conditioned to believe that suffering is just part of being a woman!

J Womens Health Gend Based Med 1999 Oct;8(8):1043-52

The impact of premenstrual symptomatology on functioning and treatment-seeking behavior: experience from the United States, United Kingdom, and France.

Hylan TR, Sundell K, Judge R

Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Indiana 46285, USA.

Up to 80% of women experience mood and physical symptoms associated with the menstrual cycle. This study assessed the impact of premenstrual symptomatology on functioning and treatment-seeking behavior for a community-based sample of women in the United States, United Kingdom, and France. A sample of 1045 menstruating women (aged 18-49) completed a telephone questionnaire that measured, at a point in time, premenstrual symptoms, impact on functioning, and treatment-seeking behavior. Results were generally consistent across the three countries. Irritability/anger, fatigue, and physical swelling/bloating, or weight gain were among the most commonly reported symptoms (approximately 80%). Functional impairment tended to be highest at home, followed by social, school, and occupational situations. Among working women, over 50% reported at least somewhat affected occupational functioning. Of women who ever missed work because of symptoms, 1-7 days were missed in the past year. Almost three fourths of the women had never sought treatment, and symptom severity was an important factor in treatment-seeking behavior. Treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which have demonstrated efficacy in this population, occurred with surprisingly low frequency. The functional impairment of premenstrual symptomatology (home, social, and occupational) and treatment-seeking behavior is consistent across countries. Women who experience more impairment are more likely to have severe symptoms and are more likely to believe, relative to women with less severe symptoms, that no treatment is available. This suggests significant unmet medical need in this more severely affected population. Improved clinical identification of these women and increasing awareness of the efficacy of SSRIs in treating premenstrual symptomatology may be of benefit.

(Press release from the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, 1998)

Non-Surgical Treatment Ends Pelvic Pain In Women

Pelvic congestive syndrome, a painful disorder in women, which often goes undiagnosed and untreated, can usually be cured by plugging blood vessels in the ovaries, according to a study by Johns Hopkins radiologist.

The treatment offers hope to the estimated 15 percent of women 20 to 40 years old with the condition, which is caused by varicose veins in the ovaries, says Anthony Venbrux, M.D., director of interventional radiology. The bad veins cause blood to pool in the ovaries and pelvis, leading to sometimes crippling pain during and after sexual intercourse, especially before or during menstruation.

A minimally invasive treatment that shuts down veins and eliminates blood pooling, the technique relieved pain in 9 of 11, women treated at Hopkins and Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii.

Venbrux reported results of this study at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, Tuesday, March 3.

"Most of the women I see are at the end of their rope," says Venbrux. "They've become dependent on narcotics to ease the pain, and had multiple surgeries and psychiatric treatment. And their sex lives are significantly disrupted."

The problem is made worse in part because many doctors are unfamiliar with the condition and fail to diagnose it, according to Venbrux, and a fourth of those undiagnosed women undergo unneeded hysterectomy--removal of the uterus--which rarely solves the problem.

To detect pelvic congestion syndrome, radiologists first insert a catheter into a vein in the neck, groin or arm and guide it to the pelvis. A fluid is injected to make the veins in the pelvis visible on X-ray. If the X-ray shows very tightly coiled veins, tiny coils or glue-like liquids are introduced through the catheter, plugging the veins. The procedure, which takes less than two hours, requires light anesthesia and generally does not require hospitalization, says Venbrux.

Other authors of the paper include Anthony Eclavea, Paul R. Cordts and James Buckley (Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii).

(23 March 1998)

Read More About Odors and Pheromones

[a letter follows]

Since current information on human pheromones is available on your site, you may be interested in looking at my site. It also contains current information, as related to my 1995 book on human pheromones.

Jim Kohl

http://www.pheromones.com

New Evidence Shows That Pheromones Influence Menstrual Cycles

The scientist who first published the observation that women living together sometimes menstruate together has now told us why.

Martha McClintock (see the picture I took at the June 1997 conference of The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research), a professor at the University of Chicago, wrote last week in the British journal Nature, which published her initial finding 27 years ago (Menstrual synchrony and suppression. Nature 229: 244-245, 1971; I am asking permission to reprint that paper on this Web site), that odorless chemical signals given off by women - pheromones - can change other women's menstrual cycles. (See an earlier discussion of a similar experiment.)

The authors (McClintock and Kathleen Stern) summarize it in the journal:

They found that odourless compounds from the armpits of women in the late follicular phase of their menstrual cycles accelerated the preovulatory surge of luteinizing hormone of recipient women and shortened their menstrual cycles. Axillary (underarm) compounds from the same donors which were collected later in the menstrual cycle (at ovulation) had the opposite effect: they delayed the luteinizing-hormone surge of the recipients and lengthened their menstrual cycles. By showing in a fully controlled experiment that the timing of ovulation can be manipulated, this study provides definitive evidence of human pheromones.

It will be interesting to find out what perceives these pheromones - my favorite organ, the vomeronasal organ, maybe?

(15 March 1998)

Mind Your Sis and Mum, Hon! Call Your Congresswoman/man!

Did you know that there is a bill in Congress to fund testing of tampons and pads for disease-producing material without using the money of the manufacturers?

Women put pads and tampons onto and into their bodies for decades, and we really don't know what harmful effects they may have.

Do you trust the manufacturers to tell you?

In 1975, a small newspaper in Rochester, New York, challenged Procter & Gamble to tell the truth about its Rely tampon, which had problems obvious to many people. Only after it killed and maimed scores of women five years later did the government force P&G to withdraw it from the market.

Read these historic articles, a gift to your MUM last year, plus other items about the Rely tampon, which "even absorb[ed] the worry."

And read the great item about this new funding effort, at SIS, a nonprofit site for women consumers run by a former New York Times reporter, Frances Cerra Whittelsey. You'll find much more information about this health effort, but also important information about what to buy and what to avoid in the consumer world, and the silliness of many products.

But please give your support, and call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 to contact your Congressional representative about this bill, H.R. 2900.

"Women have a right to know about vaginal products," says Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the New York Democrat who is sponsoring the legislation.

It's a matter of life and death.

To Your Health!

This just in:

Hi,

Thanks for this great site! I'm going to add a link to the Museum of Menstruation to my new Menstruation Net links category (which I'm creating today) at Womens Health- The Mining Company http://womenshealth.miningco.com

Please stop by for a visit and I'd appreciate a link from your site, as well.

Womens Health- The Mining Company features hundreds of reviewed Net links in currently 25 categories, weekly feature articles which deal with important health issues, scheduled chats, a free newsletter, and coming this week is a bulletin board where women will be able to ask questions and get answers.

Have a great day!

Tracee Cornforth

Womens Health Guide- The Mining Company

This week's feature: Cancer: Part Three- Support Services

* Subscribe to my Free newsletter! http://womenshealth.miningco.com/gi/pages/mmail.htm

Personal Homepages: http://members.tripod.com/~tlcrose

To Your Health Again!

This also just in:

I would love to have a link from your site to ours!!!!!!! We have pages on

- menstrual cycles

- menopause

as well as other topics not covered elsewhere. Your site is great!

Joan Schrammeck

Development Director, Feminist Women's Health Center

106 East E Street, Yakima, WA 98901

website: http://www.fwhc.org voice mail: 800-572-4223 x112

Abortion and birth control are powerful tools in the hands of women.

Hormones Do Cause PMS, Says Latest Study, and There is a Treatment

By blocking the natural production of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone in test subjects' bodies, and giving the women varying amounts of substitute hormones over a period of weeks, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, (U.S.A.), showed that the characteristic mood changes of premenstrual syndrome could be produced at will in women who normally have such problems.

The scientisis theorize that women who get PMS have a different sensitivity to the mood-destabilizing effects of hormones than most women.

The drug used to block the hormones' effects in the study, leuprolide, is already widely used in PMS treatment, as are certain anti-depression medications, which affect the levels of serotonin in the body. (Below are earlier articles about effective anti-depression medication.)

The study appeared in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

By the way, the director of a menstrual disorders clinic on the west coast, part of a university medical school, visited MUM two years ago. She said that almost all severe cases of PMS she saw were in women who already had serious psychological problems. I don't know if this recent news affects that viewpoint.

(25 Jan 98)

PCBs Shorten Menstrual Cycle

Polychlorinated biphenyls - PCBs - found in fish in Lake Ontario have shortened by about one day the menstrual periods of women who have eaten them more than once a month. New York health officials have warned women of childbearing age not to eat these fish, which have high levels of several toxic pollutants.

PCBs can imitate some of the effects of the sex hormone estrogen, which is apparently occurring in the 2,200 premenopausal women studied in an article in the Dec. 1 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. Estrogen and its emulators have been in the news often in the past year. (28 Dec 97)

Preserve Your Memory with Estrogen?

Reports today indicate that in tests of visual memory, post-menopausal women taking estrogen supplements performed better than those who didn't, possibly meaning that the hormone could retard or prevent memory loss occurring naturally or pathologically with age.

You'll recall that estrogen has also been shown to reduce rates of heart attack in post-menopausal women, but to probably increase chances of breast cancer. In general, women are much more likely to die of heart disease than breast cancer, contrary to what many women believe.

Estrogen may also be causing the declining sperm production noted in men of many countries. Many man-made substances contain forms of estrogen, and when these products are discarded, estrogen can leach into the water and food supply. This is a busy field of research, and an important one. (22 Dec 97)

Women Can Abort Earlier at Planned Parenthood

At 23 Planned Parenthood clinics around the country, doctors are aborting women as soon as eight days after conception using a method made possible by off-the-shelf pregnancy detector kits, which allow very early determination. This gives women yet another method to end an unwanted pregnancy - at eight days, the embryo is about the size of a pin head - and before a missed menstrual period would indicate the possibility of conception.

The New York Times reported Sunday that Dr. Jerry Edwards, medical director of Houston and southeast Texas for Planned Parenthood, developed the technique employing a hand-held syringe, not the more expensive and noisy electrical vacuum pump. An article announcing the technique appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association for December. (See also JAMA's Women's Health Information Center.)

In an interview on National Public Radio today, Dr. Edwards said that the syringe is about the 60 cubic centimeter size, and "looks like a turkey baster," an analogy just great for this festive season.

Edwards said that about 15% of patients ask for no sedation, but doctors use a local anesthetic. He said patients experience about the same amount of pain as in the pump approach.

The drug RU-486, Edwards said, requires two doses several days apart, and creates an artificial miscarriage; it requires surgery in 5-10% of the cases. The American Food and Drug Administration has not approved it.

This newest kind of intervention can be quick, avoiding the somewhat long wait before abortion common in some other approaches. Edwards said that this long wait can be torture for many women.

Almost a year ago, the FDA approved the "morning-after" pill as an abortion device, an oral contraceptive taken up to 72 hours after unprotected intercourse.

A doctor can also insert a Copper-T device into a woman's uterus up to a week after unprotected sex to prevent a pregnancy from continuing. Women can use this method as a long-term contraceptive by leaving it in the uterus.

Look at the patent for a menstrual suction "gun." It's similar to devices used by some women's groups to abort members who want to end a suspected pregnancy. (22 Dec 97)

Heavy Bleeding: Control It By Heat Treatment

About 19 percent of menstruating women suffer from menorrhagia, too heavy menstrual bleeding (see the letter below), which can require more than a dozen napkins or tampons a day, and can cause anemia.

Now there's a relatively cheap, reliable treatment just approved by the American Food and Drug Administration, although it's not for cases involving uterine cancer or fibroid tumors, or in certain other situations. And women should not plan to become pregnant afterwards, because of dangerous complications the partially destroyed endometrial lining can cause.

Called ThermaChoice, it can replace hysterectomy and ablation in many cases, ablation being another way of partially destroying the lining of the uterus to reduce bleeding. Hysterectomies are much more expensive than ThermaChoice, from $6,000 to $12,000 versus about $2,500 to $3,000. Ablations are also fairly inexpensive, and about as effective as ThermaChoice (about 80 percent of women are helped up to at least a year after the treatment), but they require more anesthesia and much skill from the surgeon.

ThermaChoice is effected by inserting a needle into the vagina and into the opening of the uterus, the physician introducing a balloon through the needle into the cavity of the uterus. A liquid then inflates the balloon and is heated to 188°F by a cable through the needle; eight minutes at that temperature destroys most of the lining of the uterus. The whole procedure lasts about half an hour, and can be done in a doctor's office. The patient resumes normal activities the next day. (14 Dec 97)

Do Bears Like the Odor of Menstruation?

Yesterday a geologist visited this museum. She got wind of MUM, so to speak, when she was searching the 'Net to see if she should worry about attracting bears when she roamed the wilds of Canada on a field trip, a time she would be menstruating. She had minored in women's studies, and decided to drive down to MUM with another, male geologist.

She discovered, as have I, that there is little evidence that animals are attracted to the odor - even sharks. It's way down, it seems, on most animals' list of things to linger by.

Hm, this probably only emphasizes most women's fears about the odor, which advertising has preyed upon since who knows when. "Not feeling fresh?"

There really are more important things to worry about, such as black bears chasing you, so now you can relax. But watch out for polar bears!

Read about black bears, polar bears, sharks and other creatures, including humans, in menstrual odor and animals. If you know of other, especially contradictory information, please send it to me! Women friends have told me that dogs seem awfully interested in you-know-where when they - my friends, that is; dogs don't menstruate, although certain other mammals do - are menstruating. But dogs zero in on men, too, so it may just be a generic genital odor. Is there such a thing? (7 Dec 97)

Women Feel Better About Menopause

Better information might be making women greet the close of their reproductive years in better spirits. Many may actually look forward to it.

That's part of the news from the annual meeting of the North American Menopause Society, in Boston, a few weeks ago.

And here's more: A whopping 80% of women surveyed by the Gallup Organization are relieved to see the end of their periods, an amount which seems to agree with what I hear from museum visitors. There's just too much unpredictability, mess, and societal displeasure associated with it (see the item just below).

A few weeks ago, I ran in this column a theory about how menopausal women may have made possible the advance of civilization. The Gallup survey says that most women do not let menopause stop them from trying new or risky things.

But many women also believe that menopause is linked with depression and cancer. Not true, say the experts.

By the way, the executive director of the society is a male, Wulf Utian, which leads me into the next item. (3 Nov 98)

Does Leptin Trigger Menstruation?

A study published in the October issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism provides support for the hypothesis of Rose Frisch of Harvard University, which claims that women need a certain level of fat to be able to reproduce.

Researchers at Ohio State University have found evidence that leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells, may trigger the onset of menstruation, menarche. It could be that the body only prepares itself for reproduction when the woman has sufficient energy for the job in the form of fat. This fat level is indicated by the amount of leptin in the blood.

It's well known that very thin women, such as anorectics, or women with very low body fat because of exercise, can stop menstruating. (26 Oct 97)

Can Plant Estrogen Reduce Breast Cancer?

A weak cousin of the estrogen found in women's bodies has again been found to possibly block the start of breast cancer, according to a study at the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Center in Perth, Australia, as reported in the medical journal Lancet (October 4 edition).

Researchers measured the presence in test subjects' urine of lignans and isoflavonoids, two phytoestrogens - "phyto-" means plant - found in legumes (especially soy beans), berries, certain root crops and whole-grain foods, to measure the preventative powers of the estrogen.

David Ingram, the leader of the Australian group, said that previous research has shown that diet seems to aid in cancer prevention, but none has shown the power of certain phytoestrogens that this study has indicated. (19 Oct 97)

FDA Proposes to Force Drug Companies to Include Women of All Ages in Tests

No longer can a drug company say that because a drug being tested might possibly harm a pregnant woman or her fetus, the company will not include her in its studies. It will be up to the woman, who will be told of such possibilities. At least that is what the Food and Drug Administration is thinking of enacting into law. The agency could then stop a study not meeting these conditions, or prevent its even starting.

You, the public, have 90 days to comment to the FDA about this good proposal. The agency will then decide what to do. (29 Sep 97)

Yet Another Antidepressant Relieves PMS Symptoms, But Little Benefit from Hormones or Herbs

Researchers at Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have found that twice as many women with severe premenstrual syndrome benefited from the antidepressant sertraline as from a placebo.

Psychiatrist Judith Gold wrote an editorial accompanying the report in the current Journal of the American Medical Association, saying that women have had little or no relief from PMS symptoms from diuretics, estrogen, progesterone, mineral or herbal mixtures, or from vitamins. (29 Sep 97)

Menopause Advances Civilization?

Who wants to be old in America? Menopause is treated like a disease here, the land of youth. It was different in other countries, in earlier times. The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig wrote in The World of Yesterday about his childhood in late nineteenth century Vienna:

The doubt, that young people were not quite reliable, was common in every circle . . . .

Newspapers recommended substances to hasten the growth of beards. Twenty-four and twenty-five year old physicians who had just passed their examinations grew great beards and wore gold-rimmed eye-glasses, even when their eyes were fine, just to give the impression of experience to their first patients.

Now Dr. Kristen Hawkes of the University of Utah has proposed that post-menopausal women, freed of childbearing concerns, could have advanced civilization by helping out with others' babies and children, and doing work younger women are unable to perform. This is the case with the Hadza people of Tanzania, which Hawkes has studied extensively, as reported in the latest issue of Current Anthropology. Natalie Angier wrote a fascinating article about Hawkes' research and competing ideas about menopause in the 16 September issue of the New York Times.

Hawkes suggests that grandmothers enabled early humans to spread to new habitats and create the world we see today.

"The Grandmother Hypothesis gives us a whole new way of understanding why modern humans suddenly were able to go everywhere and do everything. It may explain why we took over the planet," said Dr. Hawkes.

Read Angier's article also for some interesting ideas about the "reasons" for menopause, possibly even evolutionary advantage.

I wonder how this could tie in with the "crone" idea of certain varieties of feminism? (21 Sep 97)

Genetic Material of the Fetus in Mothers' Blood

Instead of having to withdraw amniotic fluid from the mother to search for genetic defects of a fetus, it may be possible to use the mother's own blood in the future.

The British journal Lancet (vol. 350, page 485) reports that researchers from Great Britain and Italy have found fetal cells in mothers' blood, possibly present because of the programmatic death of cells in the fetus.

The journal cautions that the examination of this genetic substance must be considerably refined. (21 Sep 97)

New Weapon Kills TSS Bacteria

Everyone knows that traditional antibiotics are much less effective today than earlier, probably because of overuse, allowing bacteria to change to more resistant forms.

The Institute for Medical Microbiology and Immunology of the University of Bonn in Germany has been studying the so-called lantibiotics, which disable certain groups of bacteria in a completely new way. The German Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reported on 11 June that in studies done with Staphylococcus aureus, the causative agent in toxic shock syndrome, which is sometimes associated with tampon and pad use, lantibiotics were the equal to the only effective antibiotic, Vancomycin. Eight other antibiotics were completely ineffective.

The German researchers believe that development of this group of substances is very important. Scientists have already identified two dozen kinds, including Nisin, which the food-processing industry has been using for the past 30 years. (27 Jul 97)

Better Pap Smear is More Expensive

Cytyc Corporation, a company in Boxborough, Massachusetts, has created the first improved Pap smear test - the Thin-Prep Pap Smear - since the original test came out 50 years ago. The Pap smear detects cancer and other abnormal cells of the cervix. But insurance programs are reluctant to pay the extra $20-30 cost for the extra 65% abnormal results it picks up.

A complete story appears in the Washington Post Health section for 9 June. (undated)

Women Undervalued as Researchers

A study conducted at the University of Göteborg in Sweden showed that women researchers looking for post-doctoral positions were consistently rated lower by selection committees than the men they were competing with. Even women whose publications were cited just as often as competing men were judged as being less qualified; frequency of citation is an oft-used measure of the importance of a publication.

Nature magazine reported also that contestants who were colleagues of the selection committee members got much better scores. (undated)

Toxic Shock Organism Increasingly Resistant

A Japanese hospital reports that vancomycin, an antibiotic of last resort in treating diseases resistant to other medications, has failed to cure a woman infected with staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium that lives naturally in the vagina, but which can cause toxic shock under certain circumstances. Other Japanese hospitals report this same resistance, and American hospitals will soon start to look for vancomycin-resistant organisms.

Toxic shock has killed and maimed thousands of women using tampons and pads, the most famous outbreak centering around Rely and other super absorbent tampons in the early 1980s. Toxic shock can also affect men, and figures in many infections.

Dr. Philip Tierno, Jr., probably the most prominent researcher of menstrual products and a MUM board member, says in the film Under Wraps that if he were a women, he would not use tampons, because of several dangers, but especially toxic shock.

See also the Karen Houppert's article of a few years ago in the Village Voice discussing the tampon industry (and this museum). (undated)

Treatment NOT a Big Factor in Cancer?

A researcher at the University of Chicago, long a skeptic of the efficacy of cancer treatment, said in the New England Journal of Medicine that most of the recent improvement in mortality comes from the decline in smoking and improvement in the early detection of cancer.

Philip Cole of the University of Alabama disputed John Bailar's contention, although conceding that the decline in smoking does account for a large portion of the decrease. (undated)

Girls Becoming More Violent

In our violent society, girls account for a increasing share of arrest rates, as much as 20 percent now, compared with boys.

And the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry reports that in a study of 436 poor women from Worcester, Massachusetts, almost two-thirds reported that they had suffered harsh physical violence or sexual molestation by the age of 12 from people charged with their care.

Abigail Trafford in the 27 May Health section of the Washington Post writes that girls are becoming more violent because of the violence done to them.

America champions the cowboy, crook and cop, all in the name of excitement and settling scores. Deep down, America's the problem. (undated)

Weight and Passive Smoke Affect Women

Higher blood pressure and similar metabolic problems caused by obesity caused 2.5 times the rate of ischemic stroke in moderately overweight women when compared to the leanest in a study conducted of almost 120,000 nurses, as reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The same researchers at Harvard studied 32,000 nurses who has been regularly exposed to second-hand smoke, but who had never themselves smoked. The journal Circulation reported recently the group's finding: that even women who had reported only occasional second-hand smoke exposure had a 60 percent higher heart attack rate than those who had never been exposed. (undated)

Dioxin Affects Fish, and You and Me

Again and again we read about the effects of the class of chemicals called dioxins, found almost everywhere, and produced in part from the processing of wood - this means it's found in many menstrual products, since many pads and tampons contain wood pulp.

Read about the effects on fish, and probably the people that eat them, in the 17 May edition of Science News. (undated)

"Traumatic Grief" is Dangerous

People whose spouses were a "Band-Aid" - they helped them with their very inadequate skills in relationships - suffer a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder when these partners die. Damage to their immune systems can be worse than that experienced by severely depressed people, and can probably trigger grave physical illness, such as cancer. Psychotherapy can help.

Read about it in the May American Journal of Psychiatry. (undated)

Finding Lobular Breast Cancer, NOT with Mammography

In contrast to the cancer 85% of women afflicted with breast cancer get, a cancer which affects the ducts which carry milk to the nipple, lobular breast cancer, which affects the milk-producing glands themselves, cannot be detected by mammography.

Carol Shattuck, now undergoing chemotherapy for this latter cancer, writes in the Washington Post Health section (20 May), "No matter what your age, mammography is not always the answer. At least 10 percent of breast cancers are not picked up on mammograms . . . . We must . . . become knowledgeable about about cancer and the limits of technology, such as mammography . . . . [M]any of our doctors, along with the general public, place far too much reliance on mammography."

This Post section also talks about clotting problems with birth control pills. (undated)

Does Estrogen Reduce the Risk of Alzheimer's Disease?

In a fabulous article on the pioneer of geriatric research, Dr. Caleb E. Finch, of the University of Southern California, Science Times (New York Times) from 20 May reports that "women who take estrogen replacement therapy after menopause appear to have a reduced risk of developing the disease [Alzheimer's], and early studies have suggested that the hormone can ameliorate the symptoms and slow the progress of mental decline in those already afflicted."

Dioxin Affects Fish, and You and Me

Again and again we read about the effects of the class of chemicals called dioxins, found almost everywhere, and produced in part from the processing of wood - this means it's found in many menstrual products, since many pads and tampons contain wood pulp.

Read about the effects on fish, and probably the people that eat them, in the 17 May edition of Science News. (undated)

"Traumatic Grief" is Dangerous

People whose spouses were a "Band-Aid" - they helped them with their very inadequate skills in relationships - suffer a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder when these partners die. Damage to their immune systems can be worse than that experienced by severely depressed people, and can probably trigger grave physical illness, such as cancer. Psychotherapy can help.

Read about it in the May American Journal of Psychiatry.

Finding Lobular Breast Cancer, NOT with Mammography

In contrast to the cancer 85% of women afflicted with breast cancer get, a cancer which affects the ducts which carry milk to the nipple, lobular breast cancer, which affects the milk-producing glands themselves, cannot be detected by mammography.

Carol Shattuck, now undergoing chemotherapy for this latter cancer, writes in the Washington Post Health section (20 May), "No matter what your age, mammography is not always the answer. At least 10 percent of breast cancers are not picked up on mammograms . . . . We must . . . become knowledgeable about about cancer and the limits of technology, such as mammography . . . . [M]any of our doctors, along with the general public, place far too much reliance on mammography."

This Post section also talks about clotting problems with birth control pills. (undated)

Does Estrogen Reduce the Risk of Alzheimer's Disease?

In a fabulous article on the pioneer of geriatric research, Dr. Caleb E. Finch, of the University of Southern California, Science Times (New York Times) from 20 May reports that "women who take estrogen replacement therapy after menopause appear to have a reduced risk of developing the disease [Alzheimer's], and early studies have suggested that the hormone can ameliorate the symptoms and slow the progress of mental decline in those already afflicted." (undated)

Researchers Lower Odds of Getting Cancer of the Breast and Ovaries Because of Faulty Genes

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute report in The New England Journal of Medicine that the chances of a woman's developing breast or ovarian cancer if she has the faulty versions of one of the genes BRCA1 or BRCA2 are lower than previously thought.

Instead of a 85% chance, she now has about a 50% chance of developing breast cancer if she has one of the defective genes, and a 16% chance, not 40%, of developing cancer of the ovaries. These odds apply to women by the time they turn 70, and who do not have strong histories of breast or ovarian cancers in their families.

Authorities say the predictive situation is still muddled.

See also the New York Times article warning readers against believing everything they read. (17 May 97)

Genital Mutilation, Of Sorts, Practiced in the U.S.A.

Natalie Angier, in the Science Times section of the New York Times for May 13, reports on the changing attitude toward surgically changing children's ambiguous genitals. Read the article to see another instance of how increased public awareness. (17 May 97)

Be Skeptical About Health Risks

I am a health news junkie, I admit, just like millions of other Americans; you may be too. But Dr. Marcia Angell, the executive editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, wrote in the The New York Times Magazine recently that we should all RELAX!

In Overdosing on Health Risks she points out that

Even though breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in women in their 40's, the disease still affects fewer than 2 percent of women in this age group. After age 50, the death rate from breast cancer rises rapidly, but over a woman's lifespan, it lags behind lung-cancer deaths and never comes close to the death rate from heart disease. Heart attacks kill about six times as many women as breast cancer [color added]. Still, many women fear breast cancer far more. Because of this fear, the risk seems much larger than it is.

She says too that the public expects each report of health research to be the last word, but that this news is mostly meant for other researchers, who seldom regard it as definitive. The public feels jerked around by the scientific community, and finally thinks that scientists don't know what they're talking about.

Read the whole two-page article; it cleared up my mental sinuses. (10 May 97)

Generic Premarin Not Approved

A cheaper form of the most widely prescribed drug in America, the estrogen replacement drug Premarin, won't be available for now, because the Food and Drug administration found the generic form not to be identical to the original product. (10 May 97)

Placental Defect Found in Preeclampsia

In the recent Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers from the University at San Francisco report that the failure of the placenta to correctly attach to the wall of the uterus causes the fetus to not receive enough blood, giving rise to the condition known as preeclampsia. Symptoms include high blood pressure and protein in the urine, both indicating kidney damage. Untreated, it can lead to eclampsia, characterized by convulsions, kidney failure and death.

Babies born to mothers having the condition frequently are small and may have birth defects associated with insufficient nutrients, caused by the restriction of the blood to the fetus.

Neither aspirin nor calcium supplements, previously thought to prevent the condition, are effective.

Preeclampsia seems to mostly affect women having their first pregnancies, especially those over 35 or under 20. (10 May 97)

Exercise Might Protect Against Breast Cancer

A Norwegian study provides strong evidence that exercise, especially in women right before or after menopause, protects against breast cancer, as reported in a recent New England Journal of Medicine article. Although the mechanism is not known, it may be that by reducing excess body weight, exercise indirectly reduces estrogen production, which is linked to breast cancer. Many studies have shown a link between exercise and the reduction of breast cancer. (4 May 97)

Do Girls Mature Earlier Today?

Researchers led by Marcia E. Herman-Giddens of the University of North Carolina report in the current journal Pediatrics that at age 7, 27% of black girls and almost 7% of white girls had pubic hair or breast development. The girls had been brought to participating pediatricians' offices around the country for many reasons. The researchers were surprised at the early signs of puberty, although the comparison study used by medical textbooks was conducted in England in the early 1960s, and may not apply as well to Americans.

Interestingly enough, the average age of first menstruation is about the same it was in 1950, about 12.8 for whites and 12.1 for blacks.

Some researchers suggest that the blacks mature earlier because of placenta and estrogen put in hair products for black women. The decline in age in general may come from the presence of estrogen-like chemicals in the environment. But wouldn't that affect the age of menarche?

One problem caused by girls maturing earlier is sex education. These girls are confronted with social situations that even their sisters years older have trouble dealing with. And girls who mature early tend to have less social confidence. (undated)

Is a Cure for Bladder Infections Around the Corner?

By identifying the substance that allows Escherichia coli bacteria to cling to bladder cells, scientists from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., report in the 25 April Science that they hope to be able make a vaccine which would prevent many bladder infections in women. The development of such a vaccine could lead to similar ones for pneumonia, gonorrhea and ear infections. (undated)

Male and Female Hormones in Environment May Have Similar Effects in Men

Certain environmental pollutants can bind to both androgen and estrogen receptors in humans.

A substance that mimics androgen can bind to androgen receptors in men, but shut off natural androgens, thus in effect feminizing males.

Benjamin J. Danzo of the Vanderbilt School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A., published his findings in the current issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

The effects of these environmental substances might be most visible in rapidly dividing cells, such as those in the fetus or in young children, and could be very dangerous, influencing the sex of children or a couple's ability to have children (undated)

Why Do Women Menstruate?

What seems a silly question to most of the world is serious business to you and me, and John Travis of Science News, a weekly magazine published in Washington, D.C., provided some answers in the 12 April issue.

As discussed earlier, Mr. Travis visited MUM in his research, but the possible answers came from MacArthur Fellow Margie Profet; Beverly I. Strassmann, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; Kim Hill of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque; Peter T. Ellison at Harvard University; and Colin A. Finn of the University of Liverpool Veterinary Field Station in Neston, England.

Basically, the scientific community, including the above scholars, has discredited the theory of Margie Profet, who maintained in a paper in the September 1993 Quarterly Review of Biology that menstruation functions partly as a way to rid the uterus of harmful microbes brought in by sperm from the vagina (see also the news item below). Even an editor of the Review, who initially supported Profet's theory, now agrees with one of her strongest critics, Professor Strassmann, who published her criticism in the same publication.

Read the whole well-written article! Order the article, or browse the Science News Web site. (undated)

Vaginal Infections Can Cause Premature Births

Pregnant women who regularly check the acidity of their vaginas can drastically lower the possibility of having a premature child.

The Berlin physician Erich Saling, called by the German Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper the pioneer of perinatal medicine in an article from the 26 March edition (Natur und Wissenschaft section), conducted a study showing that women who test and control their vaginal acidity with lactic acid have less than half the premature rate of the general population. The newspaper reports that vaginal infections reaching the interior of the uterus cause 70% to 80% of all premature births.

Harmful bacteria tend to grow well in alkaline environments, and a woman supplied with test strips supplied by her doctor, which Dr. Saling is issuing to interested women in Germany, can immediately test for and counter bacterial growth, with lactic acid, even between appointments with her physician.

Premature children often suffer from life-long handicaps, including mental retardation.

It's interesting to keep in mind that the theory of Margie Profet (see the news item directly above) also concerns the combatting of uterine infections. Menstrual blood makes the vagina much more alkaline, allowing bacteria to grow more easily.

By the way, I've read recently that there are hundreds of unidentified types of bacteria in the vagina - something to think about. (undated)

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